Poo-sniffing dogs helping koala research

KOALA poo is being sniffed out by detection dogs to help experts understand how the marsupials are recovering from the Black Summer bushfires.

A team of five dogs has been deployed to track down koala scat, providing samples for experts to examine the eucalyptus tree dwellers’ health by looking at hormone levels, gut microbiome and pathogen prevalence.

The research, a partnership between the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the University of Sunshine Coast Detection Dogs for Conservation (DDC), is probing how resilient koalas are to natural disasters and providing insight into the endangered species’ health.

The project began immediately following the tragic 2019-20 bushfires, with detection dog Bear sent to locate koalas in badly affected areas.

Bear was then joined by four other equally talented detection dogs.

DDC director Romane Cristescu was hopeful 2022’s search would yield encouraging results.

“We are hopeful that what we find this year – two years post-fire – will bring some much-needed good news,” Dr

Cristescu said. “The first round of surveys taught us that even in fire-devastated landscapes, we could locate surviving koalas. Now we will look at health markers, and also compare the number of individuals we detected in each survey, to build a picture of the species’ resilience to such events.”

The research is considered important because koalas are endangered in NSW, Queensland and the ACT.